James Iha - Look To The Sky LP

Label : Universal Music Japan

Condition : Used (NM/NM)

James Iha's 2012 album Look to the Sky is the former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist's long-awaited follow-up to his 1998 debut, Let It Come Down. On his previous effort, Iha revealed a passion for '60s-influenced melodic folk and '70s-sounding soft rock. While those aural touchstones are still the core of Iha's solo work, here he delves into some light electronic flourishes that add a kind of low-key take on '80s new wave and goth. In that sense, Look to the Sky has a bit more in common with his work with the Pumpkins, and feels like he is finally owning his legacy as a '90s alt-rock pioneer. Iha himself has long championed his idols, even working with his soft rock forebears America on their 2007 comeback album, Here & Now. Ultimately, if Let It Come Down was Iha's sun-dappled West Coast folk-rock break from the creative turmoil and personal squabbles of the Pumpkins, then Look to the Sky is his more austere, if no less captivating, look back from the sun and toward the dark moon of his alt-rock '90s past.

FFO : Zwan, Smashing Pumpkins, Supercar, Spacehog, etc